Former Miss Croatia took a stand at the World Cup with regard to feminism by dressing the way she wanted to in Qatar.
But it turns out that onlookers thought she was dressing for them, as they took photos of the pageant queen.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Hassan Al-Jefairi, a Qatari entrepreneur claimed the men in the picture were capturing their own images because they disapproved of her outfit.
Knöll is a huge fan of her Croatian team, and often dresses like this, modelling in the colours of her country’s flag.
She rose to fame after being spotted at previous World Cups and has travelled to Qatar for her third tournament in a row, but some of her outfits have come in for criticism as they’ve clashed with the nation’s dress code.
While tourists don’t have to dress like the locals they are still expected to cover their shoulders, upper arms and legs.
Qatar’s tourism board has told fans to ‘show respect for local culture by avoiding excessively revealing clothing in public.
Ivana said she would have been ‘super angry’ if the Qatari dress code had been enforced onto her choices.
First I was thinking if the World Cup is happening there, they for sure will allow everything to make it comfortable for all fans without any of their restrictions.
She added:
I think they need also to respect our way of life, our beer lovers, our religion and on the end me wearing a bikini because I am a Catholic from Croatia who is here because of the World Cup.
